A cloud access security broker is a company that focuses on cloud security and helps companies manage their cloud spending. They can help companies discover all the services they use, report on them, and find areas of redundancy in functionality and licensing costs. A cloud access security broker can give organizations valuable business information and protect their data and systems. As companies shift their data to the cloud, they must comply with regulations that keep personal and corporate data safe and secure.
Visibility, data control, and analytics
What is a CASB? Cloud access security brokers explained, and features are discussed in this content. CASB solutions help companies manage risk by providing visibility, data control, and analytics for data in the cloud. In addition, they help companies enforce policies and control the use of corporate devices, and they can help companies control BYOD and unsanctioned employee cloud usage. With CASBs, IT teams can enforce policies while allowing users to access files and applications securely and privately.
CASBs also reduce the risk of Shadow IT, which is the management of applications and infrastructure without the knowledge of IT staff. Given the growth of agile software development methodologies, Shadow IT has become an increasing concern for many organizations. For example, developers often spawn workloads from personal accounts and do not secure them. Default passwords and configurations allow unauthorized access to sensitive data. CASBs can help organizations detect and respond to these threats by providing automatic recommendations for remediation.
A CASB can also help organizations protect against account takeovers, a growing concern. By gaining access to cloud applications, criminals can access sensitive information. CASBs enable visibility and data control and can even shut down unauthorized users.
Enforce security policies
Cloud access security brokers are a powerful tool for businesses that must protect their data in the cloud. They provide visibility across all cloud infrastructure components, including security, privacy, and access control. Cloud access security brokers also allow you to set and enforce specific security policies on cloud applications, such as data loss prevention and compliance rules. This way, you can update your policies in the cloud without worrying about losing any information.
Cloud access security brokers are particularly useful for organizations concerned about ensuring compliance in the cloud. For example, healthcare and retail organizations may have concerns over PCI and HIPAA compliance. Financial institutions such as banks and brokerage firms may also be concerned with FINRA and FFIEC compliance. In either case, cloud access security brokers can protect against costly data breaches. These security brokers use highly advanced cloud DLP detection mechanisms to help reduce the detection surface area and minimize the impact of unauthorized activity. In addition, these brokers can shuttle suspected violations to on-premises systems.
Cloud access security brokers also offer enterprise integration by connecting core elements with cloud components. By doing so, they can enforce security policies similar to those of on-premise applications. Additionally, cloud traffic can be bi-directional, meaning that your cloud-based application can comply with the same data retention policies, user access policies, and threat detection baselines as your on-premises applications.
They block malware
Cloud access security brokers (CASBs) provide data protection and security services to secure cloud applications and data. These brokers monitor traffic and automatically block threats while also enforcing security policies. As cloud platforms continue to grow, traditional network security tools are no longer effective. Cloud access security brokers help enterprises protect their data from threats while maintaining regulatory compliance.
Cloud services are vulnerable to breaches due to unauthorized access by employees and third parties with stolen credentials. CASBs prevent these breaches by leveraging machine learning-based user behavior analytics technology to detect attacks. CASBs also prevent data leaks and inappropriate access through machine learning-based threat intelligence and adaptive access control.
CASBs are a vital component of enterprise security. They act as a lookout tower to monitor data exchanges and enforce company data policies that prevent data theft and malware and enhance the organization’s confidence in cloud services.
Granular control over user activities
Cloud access security brokers are a vital component of a secure infrastructure and enable administrators to control user activity better. They also offer tools to enforce policies and ensure compliance. For example, cloud-based security brokers can help healthcare organizations ensure Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance, retail businesses ensure PCI compliance, and financial institutions protect their data from unauthorized use. Furthermore, cloud-based security brokers can help organizations avoid costly data breaches using highly sophisticated cloud DLP detection mechanisms. These brokers can help organizations reduce the detection surface area by taking advantage of contexts, such as user location and activity. Further, cloud-based security brokers can remotely shuttle suspected violations to on-premises systems.
Cloud access security brokers provide granular control of user activities and can help organizations manage to bring your own device (BYOD) and hybrid workforces. In addition, they help organizations implement security policies based on user ID, location, and job function. With the increasing usage of SaaS applications and cloud computing, organizations need to maintain more visibility into their cloud environments to minimize risk. With the help of CASBs, administrators can monitor cloud app usage, create risk assessments, and reports on cloud spending.
